Is Hawkman's mask grimacing? I mean I'm all for stylizing the mask a little but putting that much facial expression into it? Seriously? I see his idea of perspective is still skewed looking at the talons compared to his fist, too. God damn, this guy has been doing major published work since '88. You'd figure that a quarter farkin' century doing it professionally might improve his technique -- not to mention the amateur hour shiat he must have been cranking out before that.

Early 90s Pittsburgh Comic Con. My mother took me for my birthday, and since we lived 3+ hours away we made the trip a day in advance. After shopping and going out to eat we went back to our hotel. Walking past the hotel bar I noticed Rob Liefeld standing just inside the entryway, sipping on a drink and just sort of staring into space. I had a little pre-teen freakout and started saying "What should I do? What should I do?"

My mom told me to run to our room and grab one of his comic books that I brought from home so that I could ask for his autograph.

I came back downstairs and asked my mom if it approaching him for an autograph would be rude. She said "Sort of, but a bunch of other kids and adults with comic books have walked past and nobody has even noticed him. Maybe it'll make him feel good to be recognized. It's worth a shot."

So, in I went. "Mr. Liefeld, I'm a big fan and I hate to bug you but it's my birthday weekend and we drove so far to get here and I was looking forward to meeting you tomorrow for an autograph. Would you mind signing my book now?"

"Is that your mom over there?"

"Yes!"

"Give me $35 and have her pay for my next drink and I'll sign your book."

Needless to say, I didn't pay for his autograph. Also, the next day, at his booth, a big sign was hanging that read "Meet Rob Liefeld / Autographs - $10". I skipped getting his autograph then, too.

/The "Is that your mom over there?" question could have gone in a worse direction.

szyzk:"Give me $35 and have her pay for my next drink and I'll sign your book."

The really sad part about that is that if I was a parent and a comic book artist had been cool enough to give my kid a free autograph, I probably would be more the happy to buy a round or two out of gratitude.

I have to agree with Bill Frist on this. Alex Ross is clearly a technical master, but very boring. His comparison to musicians was pretty apt. Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page are much interesting guitarists than Yngwie Malmsteen because even though their technical proficiency isn't nearly as good (and while they were still technically great), their tight-but-loose style gave it a ... how do I put this? ... a human sloppiness that made the music an organic thing, whereas with a technical virtuoso, it's kind of all math. Interesting in its own right, interesting in the form itself, but not very interesting from an emotional perspective.

That's not to say that all of Alex Ross's works suffer from that. Putting aside the politics of the piece for a minute, his iconic and (in)famous rendition of Bush:

...has a really interesting composition to it, in that it doesn't get by on its mere photorealism aspect. The surreal scale of it, the flow of the bodies (especially considering one is a representation of a statue), the caught-in-the-act mid-action shot, the way attention is paid to lighting the composition that that the Bush-as-vampire aspect uses his black suit as a black vampire's cloak blending into the "shadow" of the background, they are what make the piece interesting.

Which leads us to Tango with Evil, from Batman: Harley Quinn:

Another Alex Ross work that really works. First there is, again, the Joker blending into the black of the background, which works on a few levels. One, it suggests a monster hiding in the dark. Second, it suggests that as a person, he isn't really completely there.

But what really works for me here is the posing. Harley's totally in love with him and it comes through in her pose, completely. Arching her back into him, twisting her head to see him, pressing herself up against him as much as possible, her arm one arm reaching back to touch him as much as she can. Her smile is one of pure joy.

And then look at Joker. He isn't looking at her, he's looking at us. She's just an object to him, a thing whose devotion serves his own ego. Even the subtle positioning of his hand. It's not flat against her stomach, feeling the muscles of her abdomen with his palm, touching her, making contact with her. It's slightly clawed up, like he's using as little physical contact as possible to keep her around, and like at any moment he could either flatten it out to pull her closer to himself if need be, or curl up his fingers and rip her open if that would suit his needs more. His other hand is wrapped possessively around her wrist. His smile is one of pure, malignant cruelty.

The entire composition just oozes all the body language of a deluded, mislead, fragile woman totally in love with a sociopathic monster, and it does so simply and subtly.

So, that's all to say, when Alex Ross hits it out of the park, he really hits it out of the park.

Early 90s Pittsburgh Comic Con. My mother took me for my birthday, and since we lived 3+ hours away we made the trip a day in advance. After shopping and going out to eat we went back to our hotel. Walking past the hotel bar I noticed Rob Liefeld standing just inside the entryway, sipping on a drink and just sort of staring into space. I had a little pre-teen freakout and started saying "What should I do? What should I do?"

My mom told me to run to our room and grab one of his comic books that I brought from home so that I could ask for his autograph.

I came back downstairs and asked my mom if it approaching him for an autograph would be rude. She said "Sort of, but a bunch of other kids and adults with comic books have walked past and nobody has even noticed him. Maybe it'll make him feel good to be recognized. It's worth a shot."

So, in I went. "Mr. Liefeld, I'm a big fan and I hate to bug you but it's my birthday weekend and we drove so far to get here and I was looking forward to meeting you tomorrow for an autograph. Would you mind signing my book now?"

"Is that your mom over there?"

"Yes!"

"Give me $35 and have her pay for my next drink and I'll sign your book."

Needless to say, I didn't pay for his autograph. Also, the next day, at his booth, a big sign was hanging that read "Meet Rob Liefeld / Autographs - $10". I skipped getting his autograph then, too.

/The "Is that your mom over there?" question could have gone in a worse direction.

Its always comforting when someone terrible at their work is also a complete douche so we can feel entirely justified in our mockery. Like Uwe Boll.

Cyno01:Its always comforting when someone terrible at their work is also a complete douche so we can feel entirely justified in our mockery. Like Uwe Boll.

Yep. Horrible on both ends, no reason to root for either of them.

I was given the royal treatment by Mark Waid the following year, and then Sam Keith in '93. It's amazing how differently those meetings went and how genuinely excited they were to spend time with fans versus my brief encounter with Mr. Crooked Sword.